Asteroid 2025 PM, approximately 50 meters in diameter, will pass at a distance of about one lunar orbit diameter from Earth on August 17. This was reported by the Solar Astronomy Laboratory of the Space Research Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences.
The asteroid was discovered only on August 1 this year, about 2 weeks ago. The object does not exhibit cometary properties and is most likely a rocky lump without traces of volatile substances.
The asteroid will be one of the largest objects to approach Earth at a distance of less than a million kilometers in recent times. It will pass at its minimum distance from the planet on August 17 at 12:03 Moscow time.
The most well-known impact of a meteorite of comparable size on Earth occurred about 50,000 years ago and caused the formation of the Arizona Crater (Barringer Crater) in the USA. This event underscores the importance of monitoring such objects to assess potential risks to our planet.
Earlier, www1.ru reported that Russian scientists estimated the explosion force of a 90-meter asteroid YR4 in the Earth's atmosphere.
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